- 11 lessons
- 1 quizzes
- 7 week duration
Module 9
Importance of Indian Medicinal Plants and possible effects on SARS-CoV-2
Indian herbs are considered to be the oldest treatment in human history and it plays a significant role in accounting global health care needs. Around 20,000 plant-based formulations used in folk cure in Indian traditional medicines. The benefit of using these traditional plants in viral respiratory infections is to manage the immunity of human beings. Also, other studies on COVID-19 employing medicinal properties are rather less in India, scientific research has exposed anti-mouse coronaviral activity (a surrogate of SARS-CoV) through the plants Indigofera tinctoria, Vitex trifolia, Leucas Aspera, Cassia alata, Clerodendruminerme gaertn & Evolvulus alsinoides in Tamil Nadu.
The molecular process in which these medicinal plants target the influenza virus may be studied to understand whether they target any molecule overlapping between SARS-CoV-2 & the influenza virus. Most importantly, many traditional herbs have exposed inhibitory activity against ACE, and these include Coriandrum sativum, Cynara scolymus, Boerhaavia diffusa, Punicagranatum Cassia occidentalis. Among them, Punicagranatum Cassia occidentalis exposed a competitive mode of action while the others were non-targeted inhibitors. These type of plants needs to be studied further to investigate their original activity on the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into the host cells. Accordingly, it is necessary to explore the activity of these recommended traditional medicines on COVID-19.
Table 2: Indian Medicinal plant for treating SARS-CoV-2 recommended by AYUSH [58].
| Indian Medicinal plant | Types of Medical practice | Form of extract | Recommended usage | Effective against |
| Arsenicum album 30 | Homeopathy | Tablet | Daily once in empty stomach (For 3 days) | COVID-19 & immune modulator |
| Andrograhis paniculata | Siddha | Aqueous | Twice a day for 2 weeks | Fever & Cold |
| Eupatorium perfoliatum | Homeopathy | Tablet | Two drops in each nostril (twice a day) | Respiratory infection fever |
| Tinospora cordifolia | Ayurvedha | Aqueous | Twice a day for 2 weeks | Chronic fever |
| Kaba sura kudineer | Siddha | Tablet | Twice in a day | Fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath |
| Bignonia sempervirens | Homeopathy | Tablet | Two drops in each nostril (twice a day) | Asthma & respiratory symptoms |
| Adathodai Manapagu | Ayurvedha | Aqueous | Two drops in each nostril (twice a day) | Reduce lung inflammation viral infections |
This board interprets the Indian Medicinal plants which are furnished by the AYUSH (The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy), Govt. of India as a remedial approach for SARS-CoV-19.